Small correction: your system can be tested to find out the optimal timeframe you should be using. Watch in which timeframe you have the optimal returns. If you go in a smaller timeframe you will lose return, if you go in a bigger timeframe you will lose return too. So too small or too big timeframes are bad for performance. In a small timeframe it is very difficult to find the correct direction of the market, and the moves are small, so not much potential to make money. You also need close stops, so big risk to get stopped out. And that combined with commssion and slippage makes it very difficult. When the timeframe grows you can detect trends, and the moves are bigger, so not more potential to make money. You can use bigger stops, so less risk of getting stopped out.
It's rigged against those who don't know what they're doing, or if they do haven't the discipline to do it. The ES is a great market for the independent trader.
Lot's of traders are successful with indicators; to use an analogy, a master carpenter can work with any tools and build true, a novice could have the best tools and still not build square nor plumb. It has more to do with the "spectrum of differentiation" one has built in their mind than anything else.
The thing is that I've been in this business for a while and I've never met one. I did spend a few hours with George Lane who came up with the stochastic indicator. He was a big time chartist who taught his students to use the indicator after a full chart analysis. He was holding a class while I was in his brokerage, so I was able to listen in. It just puts the trader at a huge disadvantage. Always late in, much wider stops, terrible fills. You may have heard the saying among traders "never pay retail". Market orders are for emergencies only. I can't imagine how it would be possible to trade the ES when it's very volatile. The market can make a top and drop 5-10 handles before an indicator gives a signal. No one can trade that profitably using an indicator.
Why would anyone trade the 1minute eMini with an indicator signal .... when they can trade the 1minute eMini with two indicator signals:-
What you mean to say is a predatory programmer that made an algorithm based on exploiting patterns associated with retail trading... yeah, sure, things like that exist. However, that programmer isn't perfect, and therefore neither is his algorithm, thus leaving him (and it) vulnerable to exploiting as well.